Performance Marketing Worldwide unites global brands for cross-border collaboration

Vanity metrics and aligning data goals with outcomes

Kicking off Performance Marketing Worldwide in Singapore, Siew Ting Foo, CMO greater Asia at HP spoke about “prioritising resources in times of scarcity.” 

In her opening keynote, Siew-Ting talked about the problem that the performance marketing industry has with vanity metrics and beating benchmarks, which doesn’t necessarily translate to more sales. She emphasised the importance of aligning data goals with business outcomes in the wider company.

Google Adwords and campaign optimisation

Alice Goodwin, Littlewoods Ireland, then took to the virtual floor to discuss maximising profitability through automation. She talked delegates through some of the most useful ways of using Google Adwords to optimise campaigns, in particular the ‘Target ROAS’ bidding option. 

In one particular case study, the retailer identified that 90% of sales were coming from just 10% of its product range for a particular adwords campaign and how they made smart use of analytics to boost sales both overall, and across a wider range of its inventory.

“Data is the solution and also a problem”

Rupam Borthakur, APAC Director Insights & Analytics, Lead Data, Measurement and Analytics at Colgate Palmolive, then spoke to the audience about “Data Driven Marketing Actions: Challenges and Opportunities in APAC”. The multinational faced significant challenges in centralising the multitude of data it handles across the APAC region, both internally and externally from the likes of agencies. 

Borthakur explained how the FMCG giant created a ‘Unified Measurement Framework’ and a huge data warehouse to produce a single source or truth. He highlighted that “data is the solution but it is also a problem”.

Fraudulent clicks cost advertisers $100bn

The event moved on to an expensive and harmful problem in the global performance marketing industry. Ozge Ozkara, a SalesForce Marketing Cloud Specialist at Growing Minds, spoke about safeguarding against fraud and ensuring brand safety. 

A standout stat was that the costs of fraudulent clicks to advertisers had grown from $30billion to $100billion. An arms race is occurring: as bots and click farms get more sophisticated, so too are the fraud prevention tools. Ozkara also provided tips on the telltale signs in your analytics that show you are a victim of fake clicks.

How to deal with a cookie-less future 

The first panel session of the day looked at a topic that has dominated the industry the last two years, the decline of third party data due to new privacy initiatives. 

Our panel – Phil Jackson, Global Digital Analytics Lead, Business Insights and Analytics, GSK; Emma O’Sullivan, Head of Performance Marketing, Matches Fashion and Amanda Dyer-Zimmerman, Assistant Brand Analytics Manager, General Motors – talked about the ways brands can deal with a cookies-less future, and why it can be an opportunity as much as a threat. 

Attention Metrics

We then turned again to Phil Jackson to look behind the rise of the shift to attention metrics. This has been accelerated by cookie deprecation and privacy legislation. 

Phil talked about the similar methodology and scientific approach he has used across the many data-led projects he has run for various brands during his career. He pointed out that marketing teams are often pressured by time constraints, so aren't always able to robustly test their variables, buthen they can, this can pay off in the long run. 

To help people understand attention metrics more, he used the analogy of a Zoom webcam conversation. If you have a camera switched on, then you know you have their viewers attention, but you don't if the camera is switched off. That same visibility applies to analytics. 

Data is the soil, not the ‘new oil’ 

Tim Bond, Director of Content Strategy and Insight, The Data & Marketing Association (DMA), talked about why data is a marketer’s most valuable asset. He asserted that data isn't the ‘new oil’ that many proclaim but the new soil. Data is not something to be burned through but something that will grow and nurture new things. 

His presentation highlighted how GDPR has been beneficial overall, nudging marketing into better data hygiene practices to reap stronger results, while customers feel more trust towards brands. A survey also highlighted that people are more receptive to being asked if they would like to stop receiving ‘less irrelevant ads’ rather than if they would like to be served ‘personalised ads’.

Influencer Marketing is here to stay

The second panel of the day - ‘For the Long Haul: Integrating Influencers as Long-Term Assets’ - looked at the growing world of content creators for brands. India Sehmi, Head of Sales UK at LTK; Abha Gallewale, Manager of Global Social Strategy at ASICS Corporation and Scott Guthrie, board member of The Influencer Marketing Trade Body, asked if influencer marketing was here to stay. The panel agreed there was no going back, and the practice offered a vital alternative to traditional communication that younger generations prefer.

"The major benefit of a long term relationship with an influencer is that they feel really married to you as a brand and there is a lot of loyalty from a consumer perspective. If the consumer is seeing a product or brand repeatedly promoted through a single influencer that really builds trust over time and we see this as a knock on effect from a sales perspective," commented India Sehmi. "So 100% the data shows that long term partnerships are much more beneficial from a performance perspective"

Brands are becoming more sophisticated in how they work with creators, adopting more test and learn approaches. Live commerce was also highlighted as a growing trend, accounting for $150billion in sales in China. However, as Scott highlighted, we must be careful of “deifying data to the exclusion of human insight” - the human element of communication remains vital. 

From tracking to trust

Ethan Sailers from one of Performance Marketing Worldwide’s partners, OneTrust PreferenceChoice, spoke about the value of  first-party data. He outlined how new regulations were going far beyond GDPR in Europe, with laws passing in California, Thailand, China and Brazil and that these will cover 65% of the globe by 2023. He also talked about the data capture lifecycle and the art of getting consent forms right to cultivate trusted relationships.

Data can give creative confidence

The day’s third panel session – ‘Striking the Right Balance: How to Successfully Integrate Performance, Brand, and Creative Marketing’ – looked at the universal topic of integrating creative and data-led marketing.  

Ferdi Anggriawan, Head of Digital Marketing, Growth, & Intelligence Merchant at Gojek; Michael Bouteneff, Global Marketing Director (B2B) at Mastercard; Sinem Soydar, Global Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Vodafone and Sophie Top, Editor-in-Chief at dutch fashion brand Shoeby, discussed how creative and performance marketing teams both win when they work together. A key point was how data can give creative departments the confidence to proceed with projects without the costs and time taken conducting qualitative tests. 

Brands are getting smarter, agencies more agile

A fireside chat followed, with Athar Naser, Global Director, Marketing Transformation Consultant at Performance Marketing Worldwide partner CvE, speaking about how to successfully bring performance marketing capabilities in-house. Athar discussed the changing relationship between brands and agencies. Brands are getting smarter and agencies more agile, resulting in a far more nuanced and dynamic relationship. 

Rather than in-housing, Athar saw the relationship as righthousing, with varying degrees to which brands integrate with agencies based on their needs, place in their growth cycle and sizes. He also talked of creative ways for brands to skill up, including training people with agencies before joining the brand. 

167 metrics for effectiveness

The final panel of the day was led by Rachel Aldighieri, Managing Director of DMA and discussed ‘The Metrics that Matter’. Ian Gibbs, founder of Data Stories Consulting; Paul Freeman, VP of Marketing for SES Satellites and Lionel Fenton, Marketing & Communications Manager at Ford, Europe looked at the confusing world of measurement. 

A DMA study found there were 167 different metrics about effectiveness that came up in popular marketing texts, but 41% of those were really about less important measurements. The panel discussed the need for a better framework to get standardisation across the industry. 

“Marketers need to become technologists, and quickly”

As Performance Marketing Worldwide moved across the Atlantic, Rustom Dastoor, Executive Vice President, Head of Marketing and Communications for Mastercard in North America moved the discussion on to ‘Personalisation in the Age of Data Privacy’. He talked about how the finance giant curated decades-long relationships with customers, and were not interested in a quick sale. As a result, its  philosophy was to only use “data for good” and ensure that “trust trumps everything else.”

Rustom spoke about the value exchange. A customer giving data to a brand as a conscious choice is fine, but when a brand uses data to extract that information without consent, “that’s not ok”. He used Mastercard’s ‘Priceless’ platform as an example of a good value exchange – where it helps identify from nine passion areas for each customer to reward them with personalised experiences. 

Rustom concluded that “marketers need to become technologists, and very quickly!”

The Great Resignation and the ongoing talent gap

Wrapping up the 11-hour spectacular that spanned the globe, Megha Jain, Global Head of Media & Advertising Procurement at Microsoft gave a procurement perspective on ‘Tackling the Talent Crunch’ in our final session of the day. The Great Resignation is affecting the world, and Megha pointed out that the industry saw two years worth of digital transformation in two months following the pandemic. 

Megha pointed to a data and tech talent gap, a loss of legacy knowledge and freelance partnerships as core issues to address, and discussed how Microsoft Teams has helped people seek talent further afield as remote working breaks down international barriers.

Did you miss out? Find out more about PMW events

Performance Marketing Worldwide delegates can re-watch all the sessions, or catch up on demand via the event platform for three months. 

If you missed out on this event but want to know what else is coming up from PMW, visit our events page where you can find out more about upcoming conferences including our virtual APAC conference on 20 April 2022 and our Paid Social event live on 26 April 2022 in London, UK.